DENOTATION + READING/S:
In place of the customary establishinbg shot, typically an extreme long shot of a building or area, we get an ELS of a bedroom, faded in from black perhaps as if from a nightmare or to signify the darkness of the shirtless brother's (David; the disabled brother is Ben) mind.

Tuesday, 1 April 2014

Portraying marginalised groups accurately and sympathetically can remove
some of the prejudice surrounding them, so including these characters
is paramount. Disabled people are one of the groups who are still
lacking accurate and respectful representation in the media. (Alice Hewitt, 2014, from the article pictured, left)

Stumbled across this online magazine looking for something else: this particular article/essay has a rather distinctive voice, adding a feminist critique on top of considering disability representation in isolation. As I'll often point out, it makes sense to consider any given category in combination with others too - this writer addresses sexuality as much as gender.

The author uses a term I hadn't previously encountered, cisgender ... the Wiki seemed a reasonable enough summary:

Cisgender and cissexual (often abbreviated to simply cis) describe related types of gender identity where an individual's experience of their own gender matches the sex they were assigned at birth.[1] Sociologists Kristen Schilt and Laurel Westbrook define cisgender
as a label for "individuals who have a match between the gender they
were assigned at birth, their bodies, and their personal identity" as a
complement to transgender.[2]There are a number of derivatives of the terms in use, including cis male for "male assigned male at birth", cis female for "female assigned female at birth", analogically cis man and cis woman, as well as cissexism and cissexual assumption. In addition, certain scholars have begun to use the term cisnormativity, akin to the queer studies' heteronormativity.[3][4] A related adjective is gender-normative;
Eli R. Green has written that "'cisgendered' is used [instead of the
more popular 'gender normative'] to refer to people who do not identify
with a gender diverse experience, without enforcing existence of a
'normative' gender expression".[5]

The TVTropes.com website (a Wiki) has its issues, and its judgements can be questioned, but it is a useful resource for getting your head round recurring ways in which certain character types are represented. NB: the language can be a little blunt at times, but I think the lack of PC'ness (political correctness) is acceptable given that the site is largely EXPOSING the prejudice and stereotyping of much of our TV.

When some people meet a person with a disability,
they automatically assume that the individual is totally incapable of
looking after themselves, and treat them as such. Most egregiously, some
people even assume that having one disability equals having every
disability! These people are the ones who insist on SHOUTING AT THE
BLIND, assuming they can't hear, either. These patronizing attitudes
often create resentment on the part of people with disabilities.
In fiction, they have little problem telling the offender exactly that.
Learning this is not true is often the point of a Very Special Episode. Contrast this trope to the Handicapped Badass, who everyone can instantly tell is not to be messed with.

I'm not familiar with that show, but the style of humour is reminiscent of the 1989 Wilder/Pryor vehicle, See No Evil, Hear No Evil - trailer below; you can watch a typical clip here, but note that it contains some strong language.

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

An article from The Guardian's "Comment is Free" today carries very clear info on how the notion of the disabled as the other, or always the alien/different one in any group, carries beyond constantly repeated negative media representations. We can talk about anything or any concept that becomes 'common-sensical' (few argue against it) as hegemonic: the concept coined by Antonio Gramsci to illustrate how power is exercised as much through cultural control as through police and military power. The media impact can also be described as normative: making something appear normal or typical (eg, romance is for heterosexual couples, disabled characters are burdensome and odd, not like 'us', the majority of 'normal' folk).

Although many of the comments were essentially hate speech, the Twitter example given here shows how the power of mainstream, mass media can be undercut by small campaign groups or individuals on social networks - in some cases at least.

A demonstration by
disabled people against cuts to their benefits in Westminster, London.
Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian

Disabled people are at an impasse. After years of campaigning,
the public is finally waking up to the unfair and arbitrary cuts we face
under this government. Monday night's Panorama
was just one more mainstream documentary highlighting the struggles we
face accessing financial and social support. This time, the focus was on
private companies that are awarded government contracts to help find
disabled people work, yet show scant regard or support for the people
they are being paid to help. Panorama claimed to have found evidence of staff using the code "LTB" – lying, thieving bastards – to refer to disabled and unemployed people. How can we expect to be treated with dignity and respect in this context?Yesterday, the Twitter hashtag #HeardWhilstDisabled
gave a pithy insight into the prejudice disabled people are exposed to
every single day. The comments people face about their disability on a
daily basis ranged from the depressingly offensive ("I think I'd rather
kill myself if I was like you. No offence.") to the daily frustrations
of accessing basic services ("Couldn't you get your chair into a normal
fitting room? We use the accessible one for storage.")Almost
every person with a disability has a similar story to tell.